Microsoft UK Public Sector - Efficiency - Internet Explorer 8 - a new benchmark for web audiences

Traditionally, public sector IT has had little reason to think about the customer’s end of the web chain: the browser. However, Microsoft’s newest internet browser, Internet Explorer 8, includes a host of features to make the surfing experience easier – and smarter for website owners. Kim Thomas finds that citizen engagement could be one of the main beneficiaries…

Directgov is the government site that puts all citizen services in one place: if you want to pay your car tax, find out about student loans, or look up travel news for your local area, Directgov is the place to go. It’s friendly, accessible and easy to use – because it’s aimed at all UK citizens, it has to be as inclusive as it possibly can be, says Sharon Cooper, director of Propositions, Strategy and Product Design at Directgov.

The site has now taken one more step to improving its usability, by implementing an ‘Accelerator’ – a new function offered with Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) that enables users to find information more quickly. So whereas a user would normally enter a search term in the Directgov Search box, IE8 users can right-click on any word they’re interested in, and see all the instances where that word is used on the site.

If you’re interested in council tax, for example, you can right-click on the term “council tax” on the home page, and the site will instantly display a list of pages that contain that term. It’s one more way of improving the user experience, says Cooper: “Everything we do is about trying to get people to the information they want as fast as we can possibly get them there.”

Accelerators are a useful tool because they enable users to move very quickly between different web pages, says Ian Moulster of Microsoft: “The idea is to prevent people from having to go to a web page, select some text, copy to the clipboard, open a new tab, then go to a new website and paste it in.”

Their use extends beyond searching a website. Moulster explains how users would normally go about looking up a street address on a map – this is no doubt a familiar experience to you: “If you wanted to look at an address on a map, you’d find the address on the website, select the text, open another tab, go to a mapping site, and paste it in.” An accelerator application can make the process much simpler for users: “An accelerator would allow you to right-click the postcode, and it will come up with a map on the same page showing you where that is.”

Directgov aren’t the only organisation to discover the benefit of accelerators. Other early adopters include:

• Property website Rightmove. An IE8 user on any website – a news website, for example – can right-click on the name of an area and perform a search for any properties available for sale in that area on Rightmove, without leaving the original website.
• At Tesco, online shoppers who use IE8 can now right-click on a grocery item and see an instant list of prices. Right-click on “Jaffa cakes,” for example, and you’ll see the prices for both McVitie’s and Tesco brands of Jaffa cakes in different quantities.

Developing an accelerator application for your website is very straightforward, says Moulster: “We’ve worked very hard to make sure it’s as easy and as quick to develop as possible. In a case where the application is doing a search of a site, it can be written in an hour or two. Most of the work is done by the browser itself.”

Two other new applications built into IE8 are ‘web slices’ and ‘visual search’. Web slices enable users to find information from elsewhere on the web without having to leave the page they’re on. Auction site eBay has adopted web slices to allow users to keep track of an item they have bid on without having to go back to the page containing the item. This sort of tool could be the backbone of highly effective online council services; where rate-payers can interact with councils through a powerful but simple dashboard.

Visual search, meanwhile, means that, by right-clicking a word, users can carry out a search of your site without leaving the page: and the results displayed can contain images as well as text. Fashion retailer ASOS is one of the first organisations to implement visual search, making it easy for users to search the ASOS catalogue from any webpage – even a third party website.

Within the next few months, IE8 will be adopted by increasing numbers of users. It is currently available to download for free, and will also be integrated into Windows 7, due for release by the beginning of 2010.

For government organisations, taking advantage of the new features of IE8 offers a great way to provide a better service to users by making websites easier and faster to use. As Cooper says: “Everything we do is about making things as accessible as we can. We have a lot of people using Explorer, so anything that makes it easier for them and improves their experience of Directgov makes it more likely they will recommend it or come back and use it again – both of which are very important to us.”

Directgov: Find information quickly on the Directgov website.

View accelerator

Trafficify: allows you to see local traffic incident and safety camera locations for a specific area.

View accelerator

Postpad: a sticky note application.

View accelerator

Rightmove: allows you to carry out a search on Rightmove whilst on any website with only a few clicks.

View accelerator

Kim Thomas is a freelance journalist, who specialises in writing about technology, business and education. Her clients include the Financial Times, the Economist Intelligence Unit and The Guardian as well as a number of B2B publications.